Interactivity as a Determinant of University Library Websites Credibility in Universities In Kwara State, Nigeria

1. Introduction

Libraries, by nature, are very similar to living organisms in that they are influenced by external forces to constantly evolve, such as changing information technology environments and a greater reliance on web-based services (Noah, 2015). As such, these transformations affect the roles and functions of libraries. According to Olarongbe and Aina (2017), libraries have been integrated into the electronic frontier to facilitate access to and promote rapid transfer of information globally via the use of the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), search engines, social media platforms, Web 4.0, and the library website. Matthew, Kazaure, and Okafor (2020) affirmed that the change in libraries begun with the robotisation of conventional library administrations and operations, taken after by the sending of integrated library frameworks for the administration of the whole library collections, and after that the birth of the electronic framework. Today, libraries uses mobile technology devices, interactivity tools, Web 4.0, social media sites, and library websites to provide and promote unalloyed access to library collections.

Universities and libraries, both in rich and developing nations, are attempting to make themselves known and accessible to the global community by creating websites. As academic libraries, university libraries use websites to raise the exposure of their parent organizations and raise their search engine rankings (Tella, 2019). Maximizing users’ experience and ensure users are informed, universities are expected to create a website that is aesthetically appealing, easy to navigate, and well-organized (Peng, Wang, Li, & Yang, 2024). The university’s intellectual property can be enhanced through the library. This suggests that the university’s supply of information items for instruction, research, and learning is reliant on the library’s holdings. The institution communicates with a variety of stakeholders, including students, instructors, researchers, administrative personnel, and visitors, through its website. In keeping with international norms, universities also use their websites to manage their image by enhancing their online presence and exposure. Websites can be a low-cost source of factual information that can improve students’ understanding of college, according to Dishman (2015).

Websites for libraries serve as a representation of their virtual presence to the public (Tella, 2020). A library website can be thought of as an electronic branch of the library that provides information about services, catalogs, databases, events, marketing, staff information, and programs, according to Velasquez and Evans (2018). A library website is a collection of linked webpages that let modern libraries promote and share information services. A library website is a knowledge base that provides patrons with access to a variety of resources necessary for research and personal growth (Tait, Martzoukou, & Reid, 2016). The Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), research tools, advanced digital resources, and helpful links for research are all available on university library websites, Ullah, (2024). Libraries generally provide access to digital resources across networks 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They provide a number of library services that are in physical form in an interconnected virtual environment by offering electronic access on the web pages; users can ask reference inquiries, suggest collection development, perform interlibrary loan (ILL) requests and reserve particular resources among other services. Also, they offer general information about the library, such as an introduction, opening hours, staff, printed materials, and selected links available on the Internet. Tella and Oladapo (2016), stated that academic library websites; give academic libraries the leverage and ammunition they need to outperform competitor websites and regain the loyalty of students, teachers, and researchers alike.

The interactivity of a library website, users makes it possible to seek for reference queries, obtain needed information from the library’s online databases for their research, perform interlibrary loan requests online, access relevant articles electronically (Lyudmila, 2020).The websites of university libraries display disparate information and have scant procedures in place for adding, editing, and removing content. University libraries faced the problem of providing users with the information they needed in this age of internet exploration, particularly during the COVID-19 epidemic. This included addressing users’ needs for basic books, e-resources, and now information-on-the-go services (Desmarais & Louderback, 2020). No matter where it spreads, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we live and work. It has reduced in-person interactions, which has resulted in the significant changes academic libraries have anticipated in terms of physical access to print collections, facilities, services, spaces, and operations (Bashorun, Babaginda, Bashorun, & Adekunmisi, 2021). However, before the advent of Information Communication Technology ICT, the information needs of users were quite different and easy for library staff to fine-tune (Abdullah, 2018). Institutions across the globe now consider the creation and management of websites more seriously to promote their services via online platforms to potential library users. Similarly, an appealing library website exemplifies the library’s virtual presence in the world (Mehra & Jaber, 2020).

The university library can draw people in through its website, display its printed and digital resources, and encourage people to use its services and collection. University libraries’ websites (ULW) provide a wealth of helpful information, including hours of operation, guidelines, staff profiles, rules and procedures, directions, and more (Williamson, Wikle, Becker, Seiferle-Valencia, Doney, & Martinez, 2021). The website serves as a virtual space for gathering, arranging, and presenting data. The wants and requirements of the users must be reflected in the organization of this virtual area. To prevent users from being lost while looking for information, the ULW needs to be visually appealing, easy to use, current, relevant, and simple to comprehend (Alba-Muoz, Rojas-de-Gracia, & Sierra-Herrezuelo, 2021). ULW should not only be informative but also a learning tool which is required to be comprehensive enough to give space for showcasing all the resources and services it has. If a new service is introduced, it should find a place on the website with a proper description.

The term credibility refers to a website’s whole dependability and level of knowledge for its users. This is how a website interacts with users, demonstrating to them that the company is reliable and capable of keeping its word (Sugandini, Feriyanto, Yuliansyah, Sukwadi, & Muafi, 2018). Alshaheen and Tang (2022) findings shows that a library website has to provide intuitive navigation and prompt people to the necessary information with ease. Websites have roughly 25 to 35 seconds to persuade visitors that the necessary information is there; as a result, visitors quickly scan webpages to see if they have what they need.

Credibility on a website is seen as something that is not inherent in a thing, a person, or a piece of data (Pasi & Viviani, 2020). As a result, the Credibility of any website for a university library will come from the simultaneous assessment of several online dimensions. However, opinions in the literature vary regarding the quantity of factors that go into determining someone’s credibility. Nonetheless, a university library’s website gains credibility when it conveys an air of reliability and expertise (König & Jucks, 2019). Web credibility is the user’s assessment of a ULW’s quality, areas of accessibility, design, and content (Rahi, Yasin, & Alnaser, 2017). High quality enhances a library’s and its website’s functionality. Due to its status as a living library, ULW is vital to the provision of library services.

ULW is a successful data scattering device that requires insignificant exertion by libraries for showcasing instructive assets and social endeavours. It is website gives online interface to library clients to access electronic assets and goes about as a basic convincing apparatus for library benefits, its main goal, and exercises (Sammeta & Madara, 2017). Everywhere in the world, libraries utilize their websites with connections and web objects to gain admittance to advanced libraries, institutional stores, library consortia and WebOPAC, among others. Web 2.0 innovations improve correspondence by empowering client produced substance, joint effort, and intelligence in a remarkable scale (Pal, Chua, & Goh, 2017). However, many factors could determine the credibility of a website. These factors may include interactivity, aesthetics, up-to-datedness, wikis, web journals, microblogs and RSS channels, among others (Islam, Shahid, Rasool, Rahman, Khan, & Rather, 2020). These factors make library websites substantially more intelligent and credible. They also enable the websites to offer great online types of assistance to the clients.

Lin, Luo, Cai, Ma, and Rong, (2016) Explored how interactivity affects consumer trust and perceived credibility of e-commerce websites. The study highlighted that interactive features, such as user reviews and personalized recommendations, enhance the perceived trustworthiness and credibility of online retail platforms. The role of interactive elements on news websites and found that higher interactivity leads to increased perceptions of credibility. This research emphasized that features like comment sections and interactive infographics play a crucial role in shaping users’ trust in the information presented (Oh & Sundar, 2015). Hariguna, Ruangkanjanases and Sarmini. (2021) examined the role of interactivity in the credibility of e-government websites. Their study showed that interactive services, such as online chat and e-consultations, significantly boost users’ trust in governmental information.

Gupta and Syed (2021) researched the influence of interactive elements on the credibility of non-profit organization websites. They found that interactive donation tools and volunteer sign-up forms enhance the perceived trustworthiness of these websites. Assimakopoulos et al. (2021) studied how interactivity affects the credibility of virtual communities. They concluded that interactive community features, such as discussion boards and peer reviews, play a vital role in establishing the credibility of the information shared within these communities. Ha and Lee (2020) explored the impact of interactivity on the credibility of corporate websites. They discovered that features like customer feedback forms and interactive product demonstrations enhance the perceived reliability of corporate information.

Tella (2020), interactivity, usability, and aesthetic of university library websites were examined as predictors of undergraduates’ Preference for such website. Although the work was conducted in Kwara State, Nigeria, and had the same focal point as the current study, it did not consider the credibility of the university library website and the interactive effect between aesthetic and interactivity of the website.

Unlike the current study, Lowry, Spaulding, Wells, Moody, Moffit, and Madariaga (2015) study was carried out to strengthen the theoretical understanding of how interactivity affects usability by measuring user satisfaction sub-construct of usability, across bookstore and e-card websites rather than examining the interactivity and aesthetic as determinants of the university website’s credibility. This study is hereby addressing the issue of website credibility using interactivity and aesthetics as construct in order to make university library website credible.

University libraries have developed a website to perform their day to day activities, preliminary investigation revealed that most students feel discouraged when they visit library website due to the difficulties encountered in accessing library website. Also the unfriendly user interface and delay in real-time responses expected from the websites hinder the continuous use of the library website. Studies revealed that most library websites in Nigeria have been experiencing difficulty providing users’ needs as a result of lack of proper development and maintenance of the websites (Gbaje & Kotso, 2014; Mohammed, Garba, & Umar, 2016; Tella, 2020). It is in this light that this study was designed to investigate interactivity as determinant of university library website credibility in universities in Kwara State, Nigeria.

2. Methodology

2.7 Ethical consideration

The study ensured ethical considerations by obtaining the cooperation of the respondents and questionnaire was respectively distributed with the help of research assistants that were properly trained. An introductory letter was submitted to the understudied institutions which was approved by the management of the understudied institution libraries having met the ethical requirements of the institutions before the administration of the questionnaire. The anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents were maintained throughout the research processes.

Table 1.

population and Sample size of the respondents

3. Results

The characteristics of the sample in this study are illustrated in table 2 below. A total of 390 questionnaires were administered to the respondents at their various university libraries but 384 was returned which made the return rate to be 98.46%. The research respondents were 384 people consisting of 245 male and 139 female. The majority of respondents were single within the age bracket of 21-25 years and the majority of respondents came from the University of Ilorin.

Table 2.

presents the Distribution of the respondents

Table 3 revealed that the most common interactivity features in the university library website in selected universities in Kwara State, Nigeria were that 67% of respondents agrees that university library website facilitates two-way communication between the users and the site; 52% of respondents agrees that University library Website makes it easy to borrow library materials online; Reference queries are easily attended to on the library website (52%); Information about library building is available on library website (67.7%); Membership registration is easily done on the website (55%) amongst others.

Table 3.

interactivity features in the university library websites of the respondents

Table 4 revealed that the most common credibility of university library website in selected universities in Kwara State, Nigeria were Information on university library website are accurate (77.6%); Availability of contact information i.e. address and email ID of the library website (84.1%); Completeness and unambiguity of the information make library website more credible (63.3%); The last update of a website impacts the credibility of a website (40.6%), and Security of the university library website makes it more credible (60.9%) amongst others.

Table 4.

credibility of university library website

4. Discussion

The study’s finding identified common interactive elements of university library websites across a sample of Nigerian universities in Kwara State, including the ability to support two-way user-site communication, provide information about the library’s physical location, and readily handle reference inquiries. The results are consistent with Kaushik’s (2015) study, which found that most NIT library websites provide information about their name, logo, book collection, electronic resources, accuracy, variety of services, and sections, but they are devoid of Web 2.0 applications, cutting-edge technologies like cloud-based services, library mission statements, currency, and reliability. Nasajpour et al. (2014) in the study titled, ‘Evaluation of quality of academic library websites in Iran to offer suggestions to reform their quality’, which showed that audience characteristics, the website goal, stability, and upload structure had good standings, ease of search, and graphic design, the scientific background of the writers were mediocre, and updating the contents and internal links had a low score.

The findings of this study revealed that information on the website is accurate and reliable. This result is consistent with Abubakar’s (2020) findings that the library website offers information about the author as well as well-written, easily understandable content. The website is consistently updated, according to the study. This is evident from the respondents’ responses, who overwhelmingly concurred that the library website’s information is current enough to satisfy their information demands. The frequent updates to the library website by the library management are found to be the reason for the current information on the website. It should be mentioned that one of the important criteria that information consumers typically use to assess the reliability of the information is currency. This finding corroborate the work of Cosenza, Solomon, and Kwon (2015) on the influence of structural and message features on website credibility revealed that sites with more message quality features, such as information currency and quotations elicited higher website credibility perception.

5.Conclusion

This study examined interactivity as determinant of university library website credibility in universities in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study underscores the vital importance of websites in university libraries. It validates that interactivity bolsters not only the university library websites but also project the good image of the library amongst other institutions. Additionally the study sheds light on the active role played by having an interactive websites where users can ask questions and responses are provided at the best possible time. The study also talked about the authenticity of the information found on the university library website.

6. Recommendation

Based on the study’s findings, the following recommendations were provided:

• (1) The university library website, interface should be interactive in nature.
• (2) Information on the university library website should be credible in order to guide against spreading of injurious information to the students via website.
• (3) Universities should implement strategies for enhancing effective use of library website where students will be having monitored and electronic access to the resources available in the library.
• (4) The university library management should devise a means of promoting website patronage among students.

7. Study Limitations

The study is limited to only university libraries in Kwara state which may not fully represent the situation in other parts of the country or in another country entirely. Additionally, the study covers three university libraries which is small compared to the number of universities in the country which may limit the generalizability of the findings.

8. Practical and Theoretical Implications

The findings of this study have significant practical and theoretical implications for the implementation of website credibility in university libraries. Practically, there is a clear need for proper awareness program like organizing orientation programs for the newly admitted students, sharing of handbills, pasting of manuals on ICT use on the library and departmental notice boards for students towards the use of library websites in order to support their class reading. There should be an unrestricted internet access to the collections that are available in the library websites. Universities should consider increasing funding specifically for ICT, internet facilities and developing an interactive websites for the libraries. Additionally, on and off the job training should be encouraged among library staff in order for them to enhance their skills and knowledge in monitoring library websites and providing real-time responses to the queries online. Theoretically, this study contributes to the understanding of technology adoption in the context of university libraries by supporting and extending the existing technology adoption models, stating specific effects and problems faced by libraries.

9. Suggestions for further study

Future research can build on the findings of this study by exploring a broader geographical scope, conduct similar studies in different regions or countries to compare challenges and identify common pattern or unique issues. Using lager number of libraries in the sample can enhance the generalizability of the results. Additionally, investigating other factors such perceived quality, phototypicality and website utilization would provide a more comprehensive understanding. Performing cost benefit analyses to determine the financial viability and benefits for the adoption of interactive website in university libraries is also recommended for future research.

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